Arrriving in Anchorage

We left early the next morning and took Alaskan Route 1, also referred to as the Tok Cutoff, on our way to Anchorage. It was going to be another full day of driving.

View along the cutoff

The Cutoff started out to be one of the best roads we’d been on for about the first half. Then we got into sections that were severely frost heaved and potholed.

Beautiful Wrangell Range

Right away we saw a moose by the roadside, but as soon as we slowed down from quite a distance away it turned and headed for cover. Ditto on the next one we encountered 5 miles up the road. About one-third of the way to Anchorage we started to catch glimpses of the Wrangell Mountain Range. The peaks towered above everything else and we tried to get some photos of Mt. Sanford which peaks out at over 13,000 feet. Initially we couldn’t see much of the mountain because it was surrounded by haze and fog. We pressed on hoping that we might get a clearer shot later in the morning if the fog burned off. We missed one more opportunity to photograph a moose and decided that it was going to be perhaps the most challenging animal to capture.

As we get closer to Anchorage, there are more commercial establishments along the road as the outflow of weekenders from Anchorage will support them.

Potsy's Trading Post

Potsy’s trading post is an example and we stopped so Jane could get a cup of coffee. Turns out the owners moved up from Columbus, OH, thirty years ago. Jane got her coffee (big cup for $1) and we were on our way.

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We came to the town of Glenallen where the Tok Cutoff junctions with the Glenn and Richardson highways. The Richardson runs on down to Valdez and we will be on that road when we do our tour. We took the Glenn Highway for a 190 mile run into Anchorage.

Trapper cabin along a creek

We finally got our shot of Mt. Sanford was well as some other Wrangell Mountains. It was approaching lunchtime, so we picked Eureka Summit, the highest point on the Glenn Highway as a stopping place for lunch.

Eureka Summit-note snowplow poles

Although it was breezy, we had a spectacular vista to enjoy with our lunch. Further on we saw what was probably the highlight of our day, the Matanuska Glacier. This glacier heads in the Chugach Mountains and averages 2 miles in width. It is approximately 27 miles long and 4 miles wide at its terminus, and one of the few glaciers that people can walk on to view.

At the Matanuska Glacier

We stopped at the Matanuska Glacier State Recreation Site to take some pictures before moving. The road reverted from improved highway back to winding, bumpy mountain road. And to make matters worse, we encountered major construction at different sections. Jane needed some stamps to mail postcards and we spotted a post office in Sutton.

The Sutton post office

She bought the entire 46 stamps they had in stock. Shortly after arriving in Palmer, the road turned first into a 4-lane and then a 6-lane highway that we rode the rest of the way to Anchorage. We found a motel that we would stay in for the next 4 days while we got ready to start our tour. Then the real fun begins!

A biker dog!